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Posted: 2:55 a.m. Monday, May 21, 2012

Joplin tornado one year later: Tulsa storm chaser captured the storm and aftermath

A car thrown into a field, people ejected from car

Joplin Storm Damage
Tory Rhoades
Joplin Storm Damage

By Staff

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the deadly EF-5 tornado that hit Joplin and killed 161 people.

A number of storm chasers captured video of it and one of those is a husband and wife from the Tulsa area.

Watch Piotrowski's storm chasing video at twisterchasers.com

Jeff Piotrowski and his wife Kathryn were out chasing storms that Sunday afternoon.

They captured the storm on video and say when they into Joplin, the sirens weren't sounding.

http://youtu.be/EfdK6H9d6J0

You can hear Jeff pull over to a local police officer and tell them the tornado is coming and will hit Joplin.

He also calls 911.

“Ma’am, this is Jeff Piotrowski, storm chaser. I have a large destructive tornado on the ground."

Piotrowski continued to track the tornado through Joplin.

As he watched the tornado, he reported it to be an F-4 or F-5 at says it was a mile wide at one point.

National Weather Service officials would label the Joplin tornado a EF-5 with winds speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour and at one point it was a mile wide.

Piotrowski continues to keep the camera rolling and describes what he’s seeing including a car thrown into a field and people ejected from the car.

The couple quickly goes into search and rescue mode and continues to describe what they are seeing.

“It's been almost an hour now since the tornado. At 6:45, the tornado ripped through the Joplin, the southwest side of Joplin. I have already uncovered, this is horrible, the first site I came up on is….the people didn’t make it,” says Piotrowski as he chokes back a sob.

 
 
 

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